R and R in Ponyville

History

Twilight opened the letter from the Princess.

Dear Twilight,

The History of the brothers goes back over one thousand years. Back to the fall of the Crystal Empire. This is the story of three friends who each turned evil in their own way.

Back then, they were three young ponies. Two where brothers, Ruby Hooves and Zerconium, and one was a close friend, a unicorn, who they considered to be a brother. The three always traveled around together getting into mischief much like those three little fillies in Ponyville do, but sadly, their story didn't turn out as well at all. For one day, the brothers unicorn friend was wandering just outside the Crystal Empire when he discovered a cave, inside the cave was a door. At first, he didn't know what to make of this door, but when he opened it, the gateway lead to his fear.

Twilight looked up, “Hey,” she said, “That is the same door I found in Sombra's castle.” She continued reading.

Rather than snap out of the door and come to reality, no one was there to save him from his darkest fears, thus he accepted it, turning into the monster we know as Sombra.

When he returned to the Empire, he had all intents to conquer it. Ruby and Zerconium, who had seen what had become of him, tried what they could to stop him, but he was much too powerful by this time to be overtaken by his two friends. They wee some of the first ponies he had made into slaves.

From what I can gather, Sombra ran into a road block. The love many of the Crystal Ponies shown toward each other rapidly slowed his progress. During this time, he ruled part of the empire with the few slaves he had. Because this part was so dark and abandon, the sorrow grew inside the wall, and hearts of the ponies who where there, especially the two brothers.

Ruby had began to resent ever being Sombra's friend and started formullating a plan, not just to escape, but to make Sombra pay for what he was doing to him. Before long, he lost his sight as a prisoner, this caused him to become even more angry. Soon his hatred wasn't directed toward Sombra, but the other ponies of the Crystal Empire for not helping him and letting him stay as a slave. Zerconium, on the other hoof, fell into a complete depression and cried night after night that there was nothing he could do. The situation with his brother didn't help matters either. Soon, the two not just fell apart as ponies, but fell apart as brothers.

The other ponies in the room had stopped what they were doing and were really beginning to listen to the letter that Twilight was reading.

Eventually, the darkness that was building up in both of them became to powerful and began changing them into monsters. Ruby Hooves became the beast Revenge and Zerconium let his loss and sorrow turn him into Remorse.

Sombra, seeing that two of his most valuable slaves had changed into what he considered equals, offered to let them join him. By this time. Revenge had decided that he wanted to punish his people for not helping him and Remorse just followed because it was the only way he felt he could fix anything.

Sombra used his dark magic to grant the two with their unique abilities and turned them loose in the Crystal Empire. Soon, where love once stood, sorrow and hate had filled instead. Because the Crystal Heart wasn't powered anymore, it allowed Sombra to sweep in with fear and conquer the rest of the empire in days. They took the Crystal Heart and hid the door somewhere we couldn't find until it returned.

The Ponies sat around quietly reflecting on what had been said. Sure enough, they saw how they had been acting toward each other, and toward themselves. Twilight continued reading.

When my Sister and I arrived to banish the Tyrant and restore the proper order, we had to deal with Revenge and Remorse before reaching Sombra. We imprisoned the two in Tartarus, hoping that one day the two would be brought back to normal. Shortly after the banishment, the empire disappeared with only few traces of it ever existing.

Remember, though they may seem evil, they let their circumstances dictate what they became. They never let go of the things that held them back. When dealing with them, keep in mind what happened with Spike when he became greedy. Just like him, anyone can become a monster unlike themselves if they don't put their past behind them.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

The room was quiet. There was no fighting or moping, just everypony was deep in thought. Twilight looked up. “Wow, Revenge and Remorse used to be different. They had fun and they put their friendships first. They were in all ways like us.”

Zecora stepped forward. “But the tides have turned against your friends. These mares have become just like them.”

The group looked at the ground. Rarity and Apple Jack knew that they had been wrong in fighting each other and scaring away Trixie. Rarity looked at Twilight and spoke up. “I guess when you give yourself to hate, then you lose out on becoming better as yourself. You lose friendships and you become, well, blind to the fact that they have changed.” She then turned to Apple Jack. “I'm sorry for absolutely causing a mess of things. I promise to let go of anything I have ever felt toward you.”

Apple Jack reached over and touched her hoof. “Same here,” She said.

Fluttershy looked at the group. “I guess I never saw myself the same after the whole incident with Iron Will. I will forgive myself and just move on.”

Pinkie jumped up. “Yeah, it's no fun being sad and depressed all the time. I bummed me out when I couldn't help you so I felt bad too. Well, no more!”

Everyone was cheering up, but when they went to come together, they quickly noticed that there was one pony missing. They turned to Rainbow Dash who sat there on the ground. Twilight walked up to her. “What's wrong?” she said to the rainbow maned flier.

“It's just, well, it's Lightning Dust. When I spoke up at the Wonderbolt's academy and got her kicked out, I never saw her again. I don't know where she is or what she is doing. All I know is that she was disgraced, and it was all because of me.” She sat down and began to tear up.

Twilight wrapped her wing around her. “She was kicked out, that is very true, but because you spoke up, you opened up the eyes of many of the Wonderbolts, made things safer, and it all worked out in the end.” She saw Dash sitting there as if she wasn't believing her. “How about this. How about we write a letter and send it to her. We will see how she is doing. Is that okay?”

Dash looked at her. “Well, okay. I'll send a letter and see where it gets us.” Twilight quickly handed her a piece of parchment and a quill. Rainbow began writing the letter in the corner of the room.

As she wrote, Pinkie Pie looked around. “Hey! It looks like Remorse was lying. We are all better now!”

Zecora walked up to her and said, “No, he was not Pinkie Pie dear. He made his words really quite clear. No pony could help you get rid of your pain, it was you alone who could clean off that stain. Dwelling on that which brought you grief can only be fixed when you apply relief. No one else can ever cure that which in yourself has endured. Releasing the pain you helded deep down is the only way you can rebound.”

Pinkie looked at he and turned to Twilight with a confused face. Twilight cleared it up for her. “I think she is saying that only you could have helped yourself. Remorse wasn't lying when he said that nopony could help you. Only you can willingly help yourself in the end.

“Ohhhh!” Pinkie said with clarity.

“Done,” Rainbow Dash said. “I hope she gets it.”

“Good,” Twilight said, “What did you write.”

“It's just a letter saying how I never intended to hurt her and am asking her to hang out with me for lunch some time.”

“Great, Spike. Send it.”

“Right!” the little assistant said as he sent it out in green fire smoke.

Twilight looked at RD. “How do you feel?” she asked.

“Better. I guess I had to release the pressure that my feeling had been building up inside of me.” she said cracking a smile for the first time in a while.

“Great. Now, we know what we need to do right girls?!”

“FIND TRIXIE!” They all shouted together.

“Let's go!” The group goes charging out the door as Zecora stands there behind them.

She lifts her voice to the running squad. “Remember my friends, for you must know, there is only one way to stop this foe. Forgive and forget is the only way if you are to save the day!” She watched as the group ran in the direction that Trixie went.